HOW CAN I STAY MOTIVATED EACH DAY

When the day light dawns, several questions begins to pop up within our mind. What is it that I have to do today, how can I achieve it, when will I achieve it? As soon as this questions be cloud our reasoning, we either get courageous or result in cowardice.

If you decide to take the path of the courageous, then we can assume that an unseen force would have been responsible for that. This unseen force gives birth to the motivation inside of you.

I won’t be wrong to say that, it is the hope in you that brought out the motivation on the inside of you to stretch your muscle to greatness.

Motivation according the dictionary is the willingness of action especially in behavior.

Motivation is a daily thing that we must systematically work towards if we desire to achieve our goals.

There are a lot of problems with simple motivation:

Motivation is fleeting
Motivation comes and goes however it wants. It might not last to the end of the week, end of the day, or even the end of the blog post you just read. It’s fleeting.

Motivation is situational
Motivation is based on your current situation. How do you feel? If you don’t feel like doing it, then you’re off the hook. You don’t have to do it – because you don’t feel like it!
But then you don’t do it and you just feel worse and more stuck than ever.

Motivation is everywhere.
Everywhere you go, you see people trying to get motivated to do something, to make a change. They’ll go read something, watch something or attend a conference and come away “motivated.” But that only leaves them “motivated”, it doesn’t move them to action.
“I’m motivated to do this”. “I’m motivated to do that”. Stop being motivated and just do it already! You don’t need more motivation – you need discipline.

See discipline is a whole different species.

Discipline is Consistent
The consistency of discipline is what makes it discipline. You go out and do it, day after day.

Discipline Is Habitual
Discipline doesn’t just “happen.” It’s intentional and it’s repeated. Every single day.

Discipline Is Rare
Discipline doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s how you see results.
Motivation is the start, but if it’s not solidified into a discipline, it usually fades away into regret pretty quickly once you realize you never acted on it.

The following motivational story was shared by Tony Robbins. This is a story about Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Company.

The message of this story is to never give up on achieving you dreams no matter how many challenges you might face during the process.

“Let me give you a great example of a man who understood the power of real decision, someone who, once he decided, would not give up. His name is Soichiro Honda: founder of the Honda Corporation, the maker of Honda cars and motorcycles. Mr. Honda never allowed tragedy, problems, challenges, or the twists and turns of circumstances to get in his way. In fact, he often decided to see some of the biggest obstacles in his way as mere hurdles in the race to reach his goals.

In 1938, Mr. Honda was a poor student who had a dream of designing a piston ring that he would sell to the manufacture of Toyota Corporation. Every day he would go to school, and all night long he would work on his design, up to his elbows in grease. He spent all the little money he had on his project, and still wasn’t finished. Finally, he hocked his wife’s jewelry to continue.

After years of effort he finally designed the piston ring he was sure Toyota would buy. When he took it to them, they rejected it. He was sent back to school to suffer the humiliation of his teachers’ and friends’ telling him what an idiot he was for designing such a ridiculous gadget.

Was he frustrated? You bet. Was he broke? Yes. Did he give up? No way.

Instead, he spent the next two years continuing to find ways to make the piston ring better. He had the key formula to success:

He decided what he wanted.

He took action.

He noticed whether it was working or not, and when things weren’t working out,

He kept changing his approach. He was flexible in the way he went about things.

Finally, after two more years, he refined his design, and Toyota actually bought it!

In order to build his piston factory, Mr. Honda needed concrete, but Japanese Government was gearing up for World War II, so none was available. Once again, it looked as if his dream would die. It seemed no one would help him. Again, did he quit? Absolutely no. He had decided to build this factory. Since giving up was not an option, he got together a group of his friends, and for weeks they worked around the clock trying different approaches until they found a new way to manufacture concrete. He built his factory and was finally able to produce his piston rings.

“But wait, there’s more…”

The story doesn’t end here. During the war, the United States bombed his factory, destroying most of it. Instead of feeling defeated, he rallied all his employees. He said, “Quickly! Run outside and watch those planes. What they’ll do is drop their fuel cans out of the sky. We need to find out where they drop them and get those cans, because they contain the raw materials we need for our manufacturing process!” These were materials they couldn’t get anywhere in Japan. Mr. Honda found a way to use whatever life gave him. Finally, an earthquake leveled his factory and he was forced to sell his piston operation to Toyota. But God never closes a door without opening another one, so we need to stay alert to see whatever new opportunities life presents us…

When the war ended, Japan was in total turmoil. Resources were scarce in all part of the country – gasoline was rationed and, in some cases, nearly impossible to find – and Mr. Honda couldn’t even get enough gas to drive his car to the market to buy food for his family. But instead of feeling defeated or helpless, he made a new decision. He decided he would not settle for this quality of life. He asked himself a very powerful question: “How else can I feed my family? How can I use things I already have to find a way to get there?” He noticed a little motor he had, one that was the size and type to drive a traditional lawn mower, and he got the idea of hooking it up to his bicycle. In that moment, the first motorized bike was created. He drove it to and from the market, and pretty soon his friends were asking him to make some for them, too. Shortly thereafter, he’d made so many “motorbikes” that he ran out of motors, so decided to build a new factory to manufacture his own. But he had no money, and Japan was torn apart. How would he do it?

Instead of giving up and saying, “There’s no way,” he came up with a brilliant idea. He decided to write a letter to every single bicycle – shop owner in Japan, telling them that he thought he had the solution for getting Japan moving again, that his motorbike would be cheap and would help people get what they needed to go. Then he asked them to invest.

Of the 18,000 bicycle – shop owners who received a letter, 3,000 gave Mr. Honda money, and he manufactured his first shipment. And then he was a success, right? Wrong! The motorbike was too big and bulky, and very few Japanese bought it. So once again, he noticed what wasn’t working, and instead of giving up, he changed his approach again. He decided to strip his motorbike down and make it much lighter and smaller. He called it The Cub, and it became an “overnight success,” winning Honda the Emperor’s Award. Everyone looked at him and thought how “lucky” he was to have come up with this idea.

Was he lucky? Maybe, if L.U.C.K. means Labor Under Correct Knowledge. Today, Mr. Honda’s company is one of the most successful in the world. Honda Corporation now employs over 100,000 people and outsells all but Toyota cars in the U.S. – all because Mr. Honda never gave up. He never let problems or circumstances get in his way. He decided that there is always a way to succeed if you’re really committed.”

Below is another story of an athlete that will get you motivated.

But how many of us know that he got his wrist fractured before Olympics.

Michael Phelps had a vision to be the first Olympian in history to win 8 gold medals in one single Olympic Games. He had already won six of his eight gold medals when he finds himself in a precarious situation well behind the leader in his seventh race – the 100 meter fly…..

To capture the magnificence of this snapshot in time we must rewind to November of 2007 – (less than 9 months before the summer Olympics in Bejing) – Michael Phelps slips and falls outside of his training facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan and fractures his wrist. The media quickly descend on the trauma of the situation and predict how long this will keep Michael out of the water. Medical pundits calculate how adversely this will affect Michael’s militaristic training regimen. “Will he even be able to compete in the Olympic Games at all?”

But Michael Phelps thrives on adversity.

He immediately hops back in the water just days after breaking his wrist.

With renewed passion he designs a kickboard to support his surgically repaired wrist and propels himself back and forth across the pool again and again without the use of his arms at all. This method of training becomes his new normal.

Now fast forward 9 months to the 100 meter fly of the Olympic games in Bejing. It appears that Michael’s quest for his seventh gold medal will fall short. With less than one lap to go, Michael finds himself almost a half body length behind the Serbian powerhouse Milorod Cavic – a seemingly insurmountable challenge – When out of nowhere the crowd begins to erupt. Michael surges forward turning on the gas using the strength of his powerful new kick shocking the world to finish 1st and win the gold by 1/100th of a second.
After the race, Bob Bowman, Michael’s longtime coach and friend confirmed that had it not been for Michael’s broken wrist. Had it not been for that tremendous set back…. Michael would not have won that race. Michael had won many championships with the sleekness of his freakishly long and powerful upper body. But this injury forced Michael to train differently and not rely on his greatest strength bur rather to focus on the weakness of his legs. Michael went on to achieve his goal of 8 gold medals.

Staying motivated each day requires that one must stick to some things that will propel greatness from the inside of you.

When you wake up each day, thank God that one more day has been given to you by Mother Nature. Pray and assure God that you will make best use of this day.

Remind yourself that so many people are working hard and with punctuality to facilitate your life and job; hence I too should perform my role sincerely.

Whenever possible, try to be helpful to those approaching you. Their smile motivates. Go by this one valuable advice that ‘ A job is an opportunity to serve’.

Always read good books at least for an hour a day and devote another hour to refresh your knowledge about your job.

Remember that you can do things you don’t feel like doing. This realization changed my life completely. I think that motivation became a buzzword that we use relentlessly whenever we don’t feel like doing something. “I’m just not motivated! I guess that’s it…” BS. You absolutely can do things you don’t feel like doing. You can go jogging even with your monkey mind whining: “But I’m tired. This is hard. I don’t feel like doing this.” I am writing every morning with my inner gremlin in the background: “Why don’t you open a Facebook? This is so complicated. Who is gonna read this? I don’t like doing this. Your writing sucks…” and so on. Do I still write? Hell yes. You can do it too. Ignore the monkey mind. Screw the motivation. Do things even when you don’t feel like doing them. Here is the secret: motivation follows the action. It’s not another way around, as we were taught to believe.

Start with “Why?” Intrinsic motivation is the best and most sustainable kind of motivation. Ask yourself why do you do what you want. You cannot expect to be motivated about everything; you have to choose your battles. So dig deep. Why do you want what you want? This question is more difficult than it seems. Most of the people want to, say, lose weight, but when you ask them why, nobody knows. It’s normal, right? You should want to lose weight. That’s the trick. The more you are aware of the reasons why you want what you want, easier it will be for you to motivate yourself and persist. “Should” is not motivating at all.

Let yourself want what you want. This is the follow-up on the idea #2. When you start analyzing why you want what you want, you will realize that you have no clue why do you still have some of the dreams and desires. The media, social networks and peer pressure influence all of us more than we are aware. The world tells us how “beautiful, “successful”, “logical next step” look like. And we project our minds towards the vision that essentially doesn’t make sense for us. We do what everyone else is doing, wondering where the motivation went. Feel free to let some of these imposed goals and dreams go. Let yourself want what you want. It’s OK not to run marathons or start a blog. Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean you should too, especially if it doesn’t make sense for you. Follow your curiosity and the motivation will follow you.

Focus on process and progress, rather than on end result. Goal setting is great, but it can make us feel miserable at times. If your goal is to write a book, you might easily feel not-so-accomplished once you write your first 1000 words. It might feel just like a drop in the bucket. Yet, the bucket is filled by drops and it’s crucial to stay motivated on doing daily small actions. Thus, focus on your process and progress. You might want to call your mission “a project” rather than “goal”. Be grateful and proud every day when you get to work on it. Make your ultimate goal to become a person capable of accomplishing the goal. That’s the growth mindset.

Track and visualize your progress. Visual representation of your progress can be a powerful motivator. Draw a flowchart of your project and color every completed phase. Use a calendar and mark every day when you worked on your project. Seeing a long chain of X’s or green dots will make you want more and more. Plus, it can make the entire process like a game.

Have fun! Steve Chandler said: “If you don’t have fun, you’re probably doing it wrong.” We are so tied into the notions that we have to push and sweat and suffer and tell everyone how hard it is and how hard we worked. In fact, pushing depletes your willpower and you will quit pushing sooner or later. Why don’t you try to make the process fun instead? If your goal is to run, try listening to a great podcast or audiobook, so you’re actually looking forward to it. If you are trying to change your eating habits, find some new recipes, play your favorite music and enjoy cooking.

Know yourself. Another big problem related to the motivation is that we are constantly searching for the magic formula, hack, trick that can motivate anyone to do anything. We read biographies of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, hoping to find that secret sauce and implement it in our lives. The catch is that what worked for them will not work for you and me. Our circumstances are different and we are all different. Your job is to know yourself and find what motivates you and how do you function at your best. Some people can only get things done when they have an accountability partner. Others hate reporting to someone else. There is no right or wrong way to do things. But your job is to find what works best for you.

Create your environments carefully. We are all victims of this. You read a motivating book or go to a seminar and you are full of energy (and motivation): “All right! This is exactly what I needed, to change my life now. Minutes later, you are home, to your old environment, you hang with your two old buddies on a Friday night, talking about same old things, and you slowly slip back into the old routine. Motivation is a great trigger at the beginning, but may or may not sustain you till the end. Don’t rely on your will power too much; design your environment for success. Use a shopping list based on your meal plan so that you don’t end up with tons of unhealthy snacks in your fridge when you’re on a diet. Meet some new people who share your values and goals. Too often we want to change our lives, without changing anything at the long run. Designing our environments carefully is a crucial step.

Cut your big dream into the small pieces. Dreaming big is great but often might scare the living day light out of you. The best rational thing that is advisable is to pick a scissors and then and slice that big dream into tiny visible pieces. These tiny visible pieces if well treated properly will become great someday. When you say: “I want to run the marathon,” expect your little mind to start bitching immediately: what you now see if yourself becomes different and worrisome like, I see myself drinking soda, sitting on the couch, need to lose weight before you start, you are not ready,” and so on. Your motivation will cease instantly. But if you try focusing on a small slice instead, “I will run for 10 minutes today,” you will be amazed on the success.

“People often say that motivation does not last. The only thing that can keep you going on when the motivation seems to be wavering is PUSH.

Gideon Augustine Obonugo is a prolific freelance writer from Nigeria who has been writing for a living since 2008.
He started his own free wordpress blog two years ago before finally re-branding this blog in November 2017.
Conscious growth has been the core focus of my life for years. I try to analyze myself daily and directly or indirectly study the minds of people and how they integrate it for growth.